Don’t let your emotions lead your down a dangerous path. Let God’s word be a lamp to your feet and a light to your path (Psa 119:105). Let your convictions spring from God’s word, and not from sentimental feelings about your kids, or the culture, or etc… Our hearts are fickle, but God is the same. He is steadfast, and His word is truth.

sen·​ti·​men·​tal (adjective)—to be marked or governed by feeling, sensibility, or emotional idealism

People love to be sentimental. Clothing, notes, kids, pets, you name it. People can be sentimental over just about anything. And I’m no exception. I’m not a hoarder, but I may or may not have certain shirts from college that I just can’t get rid of yet. I tend to hold on to things well beyond their usefulness, mainly because I’m just sentimental about them. I have an emotional attachment to something that overrides my reason. I’ll never forget when I was moving furniture into what would be my wife and my first apartment. I said, “Would you like me to put the couch here?” She responded, “That will work…for now.” It was a beautiful pink floral couch from the 90s that I had slept on in my bachelor days. That “for now” was a warning that my pink bachelor couch’s time was short. What made me want to hang on to that old couch? It wasn’t comfort. It definitely wasn’t style. I was being ruled by sentimentality. I’m afraid this happens all too often in the church.

The Danger

Sentimentality is a dangerous enemy to the truth. Sentimentality causes us to try to rework our theology based off how we feel about certain things. I don’t think being sentimental is inherently bad, but if we let it drive our theological understanding, then we are on a dangerous path. If emotions cause us to explain away hard passages of the Bible, then we should beware. If we choose to leave clear Biblical doctrine because we don’t like the way it makes us feel, then we should beware. We cannot be driven by emotions, but we must be driven by the truth. Emotions change…routinely. But God’s word is the same…always.

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